Bleach: Cross: 03 Toshiro's Journey
by Eugena
Summary: Toshiro comes to terms with his emotions after Shirahime dies fighting Aizen. After main story, before After DiamondDust.
1. The Strength of Heart

Bleach © Kubo Tite. Bleach: Cross original characters and elements, including the "past life backstory" © Eugena.

_A/N: Toshiro comes to terms with his emotions after Shirahime dies fighting Aizen._

Opening Theme: Shinjitsu no Uta by Do As Infinity

Ending Theme: Ai no Uta by Every Little Thing

**Bleach: Cross**

**Toshiro's Journey**

**By Eugena**

Rated: T

_**Toshiro Hitsugaya, Element God Hyorinmaru**_

"_**What did you expect, Shiro, a happy ending?" – Momo Hinamori, Fifth Squad Fukutaicho**_

**Chapter One: The Strength of Heart**

It seemed like an eternity since the Element God Hyorinmaru incarnate had seen the Heaven Princess. His countenance slowly became as cold as his namesake's. Winter, everyday seemed full of winter since she left.

Once, she had been in his squad, the third seat. She was their mascot and morale, but she did not come alone.

Inside her heart had lived Kail Zangetsu, who in a past life had been the twin brother of the Crown Prince of Heaven. Now he was the hollow form of Ichigo Kurosaki, the Crown Prince himself. Kail allowed her human body to survive in Soul Society.

She arrived here after two hollows attacked her in the human world. Ai Zangetsu, now the form of Ichigo's zanpaku-to sent her here in both human and soul form.

Zangetsu was the Heaven Princess' first love to whom she could never be united.

Every life she lived denied her of the ones she loved. In the past life, she had been betrothed to Crown Prince Ichigo, but loved by Zangetsu and Kail. In the human world, she lived as Sam Hawthorne, betrothed to Kenny Jameson. Both he and her human parents were consumed by Bounts.

Kenny was reborn in Soul Society as a man without a name. He became Kenpachi Zaraki and took Yachiru as his daughter.

Kenny began to remember his past life when he first saw Sam. Yachiru soon called her "mom," and the three of them were inseparable.

Yet, there was no lasting peace for her happiness. Zaraki would offer her the fourth seat of Squad Eleven, and no one would challenge her. With Kail inside her, her skill with the White Zangetu zanpaku-to knew no equal. And the squad members feared Zaraki's wrath, and Yachiru's.

Yachiru had found Sam outside the Seretei—a storyteller amusing the commoners. Yachiru grew engrossed in her stories and finally brought Kenny. When Sam saw him, she began to realize that he and her fiancé were the same.

Kenny named Yachiru after the only person he respected—Dr. Yachiru, a fellow researcher in Bount technology.

Eventually Toshiro faced Kenpachi; the winner of the match would have Sam—who had by then taken her past life's familiar name "Shirahime" as her own—in their squad. It seemed impossible to defeat Zaraki at full spiritual power, but Hyorinmaru appeared and helped Toshiro defeat him. Hyorinmaru said he was summoned by the strength of Toshiro's heart. Only after Shirahime first faced Aizen did Toshiro realized his gradual love for Shirahime fueled the strength of his heart.


	2. The Eternal Flower

Disclaimers, etc., see chapter one

Opening Theme: Shinjitsu no Uta by Do As Infinity

Ending Theme: Ai no Uta by Every Little Thing

**Bleach: Cross**

**Toshiro's Journey**

**By Eugena**

**Chapter Two: The Eternal Flower**

Yachiru had set up the grave first, her own zanpaku-to taking the place of her mother's. Third seat Ikkaku did not object to a few more modifications on his lieutenant's zanpaku-to. Odd, he felt calm in the presence of the zanpaku-to as he carved a small indentation into it. There, he was done. He stepped out of Yachiru's way, not looking at her—letting her have this moment alone.

"Look at what I brought you, mom," she said. She held out her hands, and the silver lotus necklace that Kenny had given Sam dangled from Yachiru's fingers. "You dropped this, mom. I know it means you'll come back for it."

Yachiru sniffled and held back her tears. Not far away, Ikkaku tried to keep a straight face. They were all part of Squad Eleven, and certain emotions usually were not embraced there. But how must his taicho feel? To know that his beloved was now in a world far beyond him?

"Mama," Yachiru began to cry, "mom!" Her spiritual energy shot up like a flare. Like a young tiger cub, it appeared before the monument, and it roared as Yachiru cried.

"_Best to get Zaraki,"_ Ikkaku thought.

Not far away, Matsumoto Fukutaicho felt Yachiru's energy. Her zanpaku-to, Haineko could sympathize. Haineko and Yachiru's zanpaku-to seemed similar, perhaps related.

"_Mom!"_

Thunder began to roll in Soul Society, rumbling to the rhythm of Yachiru's cries.

"_Moma!"_

"_This might just kill us all,"_ thought Rangiku as she hurried to Yachiru.

She sensed a very strong spiritual pressure leap past her. _Zaraki_.

Ragiku arrived at Shirahime's gravesite to see Captain Kenpachi Zaraki holding Yachiru in his arms, comforting her as a parent does with a child. Her cries began to subside.

"She forgot this," Yachiru said, holding the necklace to Kenpachi. "That means she's coming back. She'll come back."

Kenpachi touched the necklace with his fingers. He could hear Shirahime's voice in his mind: _"If our love is strong enough to defy Heaven, then reality itself will be rewritten for us."_

"Maybe she's not coming back here," he told Yachiru, "maybe it's a sign that she's waiting for us. That she's gone back home."

"But this IS mom's home, Kenny. She has me, you, and Shiro Taicho."

Even Yachiru suspected something of Rangiku's taicho. In many ways, Yachiru seemed mature beyond her apparent age, but since discovering her "mom," her child side had also come to surface.

Kenny looked over at Ragiku, not surprised to see her there. She had no words for him, just a look of apology in her eyes for intruding.

"You forgot someone, Yachiru," he said.

She looked over at Rangiku, tears almost dry. "Rangi," she greeted.

Rangiku smiled assuring at Yachiru and said, "I think your mom would be upset to lose her present from Kenny, don't you? Keep it for her."

"I was going to put it right here," said Yachiru, pointing to the new indentation in her zanpaku-to. "I knew when she'd come back to get it, I'd be right here to make her stay."

Rangiku sat down across from Kenny and Yachiru, "Were you going to wait right here for her?"

"Yeah."

"But what about your duties? Your mom wouldn't be happy to find out that you're neglecting them."

"Just for a little while. I know she's coming back."

Rangiku looked forlornly at the gravesite. "She wouldn't just want you to wait right here. What if you got a cold? She doesn't want you to be sick."

"But I've got to make sure her necklace stays with my zanpaku-to. I don't anyone to take it."

"I'll get Hitsugaya Taicho to fuse her necklace to your zanpaku-to, then not even your mom could sneak up on you and take it without you knowing it."

Yachiru got up out of Kenny's arms. "Would he do it for mom?"

"Of course he would."


	3. The Mourning of Snow

Disclaimers, etc., see chapter one

Opening Theme: Shinjitsu no Uta by Do As Infinity

Ending Theme: Ai no Uta by Every Little Thing

**Bleach: Cross**

**Toshiro's Journey**

**By Eugena**

**Chapter Three: The Mourning of Snow**

Like many others in the Seireitei, Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya felt Yachiru's energy release. He hadn't heard her cries, but he felt them. How selfish he was to wallow in his own pain when there was another hurting even more. Toshiro had grown up with Momo Hinamori and with a woman he called his grandmother. Although he seldom visited her these days, he still knew she was there. She was proud of him and Momo. Although Toshiro never knew of a woman to call "mother," this grandmother filled that void in his heart.

Such was the case with Yachiru. She had found a mother in Shirahime, and now she has lost that one. Yet, why did his pain not go away?

He'd find out the answers for himself later. For now, he would quell the storm that was the Daughter of the Snow Princess.

Shirahime. So fitting that she had called him Shiro—albeit by accident. Shirayukihime no Tenjou, her formal name, a lifetime away. In that lifetime he had no opportunity to love her. And perhaps not even Yachiru existed then. Was Yachiru really her daughter that never was? Yet who was the father—Zangetsu, Kail, or Ichigo?

Toshiro looked his window into the stormy sky. He began to see the tiny snowflakes forming—the evidence of his grief. "Shirahime," he said. "When you are reincarnated again, please be reincarnated with me." The snowflakes grew in size as he tried to hold back tears. "I promise to take care of your daughter. Promise me to return to me. I love you."

He never thought he'd hear those words come from him. He had tried so hard to keep his tough captain exterior, but for Shirahime he broke. He had been too late for his confession, but he needed it anyway, even if it was just for himself.


End file.
